I have not checked out the condemned games yet. however, as soon as i have cash to burn, im going to get orange box, since i have been dying for that since it was announced over a year ago.

I beat Bioshock both ways, and the good ending is infinitely more satisfying. Killing little girls for a marginal gain in power just doesnt work for me.

Orange Box, Orange Box... I think I might have to pick it up, too.

As for the Condemned games, you can get them pretty cheaply from amazon.com. Another option is The Darkness, which was a lot of fun (and I know that VC and Mothman especially loved). You can probably get those used pretty cheap. :)

Orange Box was fun for a bit. Not really my favorite type of game though. Very repetitive. Run, open door, get back to path, repeat. Very straightforward and sometimes confusing. I'll get the 3rd one of they decide to make it, but I will wait til it comes down in price.

Which part of Orange Box? Ep. 2? You can't be saying that Half Life 2, Portal, or TF2 are straightforward...

I couldn't play Team Fortress 2. I don't have XBL anymore.

Portal wasn't too repetitive, but it only lasts about 2 hours tops.

Half Life 2, Episode 1, and Episode 2 were all the same. Very repetitive. Come on, you run, come to a blocked exit, have to go find the power to unlock it, then go all the way back to your main path. Regardless of if you're in a car, air boat or on foot. It was the same thing in each part of the level. It had a pattern that I caught onto very quickly.....And it only lasted about 12 hours for the whole Orange Box experience.

ok....gonna have to put the other games on the back burner for now....I just downloaded Bionic Commando Re-Armed for the 360........bringing back lots of memories.:D

my kid and i played Halo 3 when he was off sick the other day ...

he loved it ..

still working my way through some goals in Tony Hawks Proving Grounds.
Been playing Burnout Paradise a good deal. gorgeous visuals, huge map, tons of cars that move at absurd speeds. its a fun game.

In HL2 there are driving sequences, parts where you're going through a ghost town on the rooftops avoiding certain doom, and hell... there's even a part where you're fending off zombies in the dark (with only a few flares for illumination) while your partner fixes an elevator. The gravity gun makes for some easy but inventive puzzles and the physics allow you to be very creative with the way you dispatch your enemies. I can't think of many FPS games that don't usher you from point A to point B...

I miss the crash mode from the other games, trying to earn medals by causing insane amounts of damage was the best.

But that's just it. The puzzles don't have enough variety. You basically have to do the same thing with the Gravity Gun, every other puzzle. Look at BioShocks puzzles. They were unique, and had enough variety in the game feel.

Yes, you did have that ONE zombie level, but that was it. You have to drive the car, and the airboat, and you're doing the same thing with both of them. You can't get out for whatever reason, and then you have to stop to go make an opening for them. Then get back in, and it lasts over 8-9 segments of the same thing. Same for when you're on foot.

As far as other games, they do to a degree. But it isn't the same. The Tomb Raider: Legend game that I just finished playing, had some interesting puzzles. And they weren't every 5 minutes. It had enough of an action/puzzle mix, that it didn't get repetitive.